Editorial: Governor should shoot straight on salary-gate

The editorial board of Raleigh’s News & Observer takes Governor Pat McCrory to task in Friday’s paper following this week’s revelation that the jobs of two highly paid former campaign staffers were never posted. Earlier this month, the governor defended the $85,000 and $87,000 salaries of the two 24-year-olds, noting they beat out a lot of older people who applied for the jobs at DHHS.

The News & Observer also includes an interactive graphic with its editorial as it explains how the governor got it wrong on this one:

‘We may dub the governor “Gov. McFrankly” because he used “frankly” a couple of times there while he was in the process of getting his facts wrong.

DHHS, according to a report from the Associated Press, can produce no evidence that the jobs were advertised and that there was any competition from “older people” or anyone else.

An AP review of state government job descriptions made it clear that the duties that McKillip and Diaz are expected to perform are rewarded at a far lower standard of pay elsewhere in state government. Wrong again, Gov. McFrankly.

But that doesn’t really matter, because the jobs these former campaign workers have are among those positions exempted from the standard rules of hiring and compensation, something that McCrory apparently has used to his full advantage in setting the figures for the taxpayer-funded salaries McKillip and Diaz now are receiving.

It’s not at all unusual for campaign workers to be rewarded with government jobs when their man or woman wins. But McCrory, or his advisers, have apparently taken the reward to a whole new level. And that’s even as they have preached austerity elsewhere in state government.

The least the governor could do is shoot straight about it rather than try to explain it away while getting his facts wrong and, frankly, insulting the intelligence of the public.’

Click the above image to view the News & Observer’s interactive graphic featuring salaries of a few of Gov. McCrory’s hires. ( http://ow.ly/opDg7)